


No greater gift has man, then to lay down his life for Love

by paradis



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, OMC - Freeform, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-03
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-02 23:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradis/pseuds/paradis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He thinks about what his CO used to tell him right before a mission, before <i>Steve</i> was the one put in charge. He used to say, “A name and a prayer,” and, with a twinkle in his eyes, cross himself. Steve was never sure what he meant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No greater gift has man, then to lay down his life for Love

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so. 
> 
> This is semi-dealing with religion, so if that's not your thing, it's no big deal, back out now. It's nothing too big, just. It's there. 
> 
> Title is from Keith Urban's 'For You' because it's from the movie Act of Valor - which is so amazing, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since I watched it.

Steve is in a field, M16 in his hand, dressed in camo, mud smeared across his face. Across from him, his teammates are gesturing for everyone behind him to move forward, and Steve moves from his kneeling position to a crouch, inching forward. This is the moment. The moment when Steve holds his breath, when he sends up a prayer to a God he was never entirely sure existed, but he needs to believe in when he’s hanging onto life by the seat of his pants. 

Ahead of them, a building lies waiting, men with their own rifles and machine guns standing guard, awake and alert even at this time in the morning, before the sun is up, before the birds are flying – before Steve can see anything two feet in front of him without special night vision goggles. “Ready, sir,” his second in command, Jay, murmurs from his right, and Steve nods, pressing his lips together. 

Moves forward, ever so slow. Holds his breath, tries not to make any noise; knows the consequences. 

Their sniper is good, he knows. He fires whenever they get in range of the men, perfect shots to the head; dead before they hit the ground. Everything is green when he looks through his mask, lit by night vision, visible but blurry. 

He thinks about what his CO used to tell him right before a mission, before _Steve_ was the one put in charge. He used to say, “A name and a prayer,” and, with a twinkle in his eyes, cross himself. Steve was never sure what he meant. 

When they get into the building, though, and there’s a girl strapped to the maximum in explosive devices, Steve suddenly understands. He understands what his CO was saying, the twinkle in his eyes explaining that the only thing you’re going to be screaming out as you die is the name of the last face you want to see. The last face you see in your mind before your brain goes blank. 

Steve screams, “BOMB,” turns around and _shoves_ Jay and the rest of his men back, as far as they can get as there’s a _click_ of the detonator going off, and then an explosion. 

A name and a prayer.

“Danny,” he mumbles dazedly, as the heat of the explosion burns across his back, burns, burns, burns, the explosion finally calming down. There’s ringing in his ears, the muffled shouts of Jay and his other men sound distorted, bubbled up, underwater, and Steve can barely make out what they’re saying. He thinks maybe he was lucky enough to push them further back. 

Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a dazzling smile floats across his eyelids as his lips split and bleed, and he coughs, inhaling smoke. 

Ringing through his head, the only prayer his mother ever taught him, the only prayer he ever knew to say in church on Christmas Eve, the one time a year they went; the only chance to get it right. _Our Father, thou art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. The kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven._

Someone is rustling him, shaking him, opening his eyes – so heavy – patting him on the back, shouting to the others, and then lifting him up. Mission over, because everyone in that fucking building is dead now, Steve thinks. 

What a way to end the day.

He’s fading fast, cold now, even though his skin feels like it’s on fire. His teeth are clattering together, and he’s pretty positive his fingers are shaking, and not because he’s thrown over his second in command’s back and being bounced around as they run through the forest to get to their extract point. “Danny,” he mumbles, even though he can’t really hear himself, can only feel the vibrations in his throat. 

Then, _Our Father, thou art in Heaven…_

Over and over, “Danny, Danny, Danny,” desperate now, and Jay makes like to pat him on the back soothingly if he could, probably even tells him everything will be alright. 

Steve only knows that the image of Danny, smiling, blonde, running through the waves with Grace - _oh, God, Grace_ – that’s the image he made sure to freeze on the night before he left. Standing with a beer in his hand, and Kono on his left, talking to him about something easy, he looked out at the waves, saw Danny chasing Grace, both of them with huge grins, and he made sure he kept that image in his mind, made sure he was taking it with him wherever he went. 

_Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven._

Something goes wrong. Steve is suddenly airborne, soaring above the grass, and he opens his eyes just in time for his body to hit the ground, full impact, grunting. The night sky lights up with another explosion. 

Danny’s face. “Danny.” 

_Our Father, thou art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven._

The ground is shaking from the impact of the explosion, there’s the ringing from yet another one in Steve’s ears, and distantly in the back of his mind, he thinks, _I’m never going to hear again,_ and then he thinks, _I’m never going to make it out of this alive._ And then he thinks, _my team. Oh, my God, my team. I have to get them out._ And he struggles to sit up, even though he doesn’t know what he’ll do when he does. 

Danny’s face. _Danny_ ringing through his head, _Our Father, thou art in Heaven…_

The sun’s coming up, he doesn’t know how much time has passed, and the first thing he sees makes him want to close his eyes again. Makes him want to grab the nearest M16 and hunt every bastard down. 

Jay’s helmet is not even six feet from him, the rising sun shining on his _In God we trust_ patch, like its sending Steve a message.

Jay is nowhere to be found. 

The rest of Steve’s team is there, though, clearing the area, and looking somber and broken. Reyes rushes over to him, helps him up. 

A name. “Jay?” Steve struggles to say past the lump in his throat, and Reyes just looks at him for a long moment, before shaking his head slowly, sadly. 

Steve closes his eyes as he feels the tree tops start to sway breezily with the thrum of the helicopter waiting to extract them overhead. 

\--

He wakes up in a white room, the Navy hospital smell overwhelming his nasal passages. The first thing he realizes is that he can hear. He can hear everything perfectly. The _beep beep_ of the machines, the nurses out in the office and –

He sits up a little straighter, winces at the soreness in his body, and looks around slowly, until his eyes settle on the sleeping figure next to his bed. 

He can hear Danny’s soft snores. Danny wakes with a jump, blue eyes opening, startled for a minute before they land on Steve. “You’re awake,” he breathes, leaning forward, gripping Steve’s hand tight, oh, so tight. 

Steve doesn’t say anything for a minute, just closes his eyes and inhales Danny’s scent. 

He thinks about how, before he left, Danny said he didn’t understand it, Steve’s need to keep going out and risking his life for his country, when he was doing the very same thing for his islands, but he’d let him go, because he knew he needed to do it. And Steve didn’t have the words to tell him, _to keep you safe. To keep you and Grace safe._ He thinks about the way Danny stood in the doorway, reached up, kissed him once, said, “Stay safe, Sailor,” and watched him walk away. 

He thinks about Jay, about Jay’s wife, what she might’ve said to him before he left. He knows Jay threw himself in front of that bomb to save everyone, just like Steve tried to, only Jay paid the ultimate price.

He wonders if Jay lives by a name and a prayer, too. Wonders if Jay died with his wife’s name on his lips, a different prayer in his head. 

He hopes Jay found his God, wherever he is, and he’s happy. 

Steve opens his eyes, looks into Danny’s watery blue ones, breathes out, “Danny.” 

The only prayer going through his head this time is, _Thank you, God. Thank you._


End file.
